The
articulate doll
One of the first practical uses of the phonograph was as a
child's toy.
(April 1992)
A doll that articulates human speech had been a dream throughout
the ages. By the 19th century, doll technology had progressed so far as to mimic a baby's
cry from a reed vibrated by a bellows. In 1877, Edison prophesied, "I propose to
apply the phonograph principle to make dolls speak, sing, cry...also to all kinds of toys
such as dogs, animals, flowers, reptiles."
Here's an overview of some of the babies offered for adoption by
the phonograph companies:
Edison
 It wasn't Edison but William White Jacques,
an inventor who had worked with Berliner on telephone improvements in the early 1880s, who
first filed a patent for a combination phonograph and doll in October, 1887. White sent a
letter to Edison because he felt he needed a license from the famous inventor. White's
hand wound cylinder doll was never manufactured, but the letter seems to have triggered
Edison's dormant passion to go into the doll business.
White's patents were assigned to Edison, and the project was
taken up by Edison's closest associate, Charles Batchelor. Batchelor's two
young daughters tested prototypes of the new toy, and in October
1888, Batchelor filed a patent, followed by Edison's patent in July 1889.
A prototype of the doll, with records in French, was exhibited at
the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition.
About this time Edison and a group of investors incorporated the
Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Company of Maine. A beautifully engraved picture
of Santa Claus adorned the stock certificates.
As finally manufactured, the doll bore wooden arms and legs, a
metal torso, and a bisque head imported from the German doll firm of Simon and Halbig.
Although Edison's patent caveat sated that a saphire stylus could
be employed, the production doll employed a metal stylus, a decision that would later
haunt the inventor. A fixed brown wax cylinder, three inches long, was advanced at a pitch
of 56 threads per inch. There was a feed screw, but no spring motor nor mechanical
governor. The child was expected to have the expertise to maintain the proper rpm by
himself.
Although the records were not interchangeable, twelve titles were
offered, recorded by young women at the Edison factory. The name of one of the young
voices is known: Julia Miller, daughter of Walter Miller, an Edison employee.
Introduced at an Edison exhibit at the Lenox Lyceum in New York
City on April 7, 1890, at a cost of $25, the dolls were later offered through the mail and
by retailers such as F.A.O. Schwartz.
An 1891 Harper's Young People articule gushed: "In 1890
about 500 young people were engaged in the manufacture of phonographs and talking dolls at
the Edison establishment. Half were employed in the manufacture of each article. It took
eighteen women just to recite the nursery rhymes."
Despite such publicity, the dolls were a disaster.
Out of 10,000 dolls assembled, 2500 were eventually approved for
shipment. Within a month, disgruntled customers started returning most of the dolls to the
factory. The steel stylus tore up the wax cylinder, and the mechanism could not withstand
a child's abuse.
At the same time Edison had a falling out with his business
partners. For patent reasons he found that he could not sell the dolls with the mechanism
intact so in order to salvage some money from the disaster he sold the dolls with the
mechanism removed. Dolls were remaindered at a price of $10.
All told, less than 500 dolls were ever sold with the phonograph
complete.
A large part of the unsold inventory was shovelled under the
earth at West Orange, where the doll burial ground remains to this day.
Arnold
Max Arthur Arnold was a German manufacturer of mechanical
dolls between 1904-1914. In 1906 he patented a composition body doll that played a wax
cylinder about 3" long. The doll was sold as the Arnolda or Arnoldia.
Berliner
On a trip to Europe around 1889 Emile Berliner struck a deal
with the German firm of Kammer and Reinhardt to incorporate the fledgling gramophone in a
doll. Kammer and Reinhardt, a manufacturer of dolls and mechanical apparatus, pressed a
single sided 3" disc for the toy, the world's first commercail disc record. In lieu
of a record securer, the discs were held in place by a center spindle shaped like a
keyhold.
The only known surviving example of this doll, about two feet
tall, sits in a museum in Waltershausen, Germany.
Lioret
 A well established Parisian clock and automaton maker, Henri Lioret was
approached in 1893 by the Jumeau doll firm to create a talking doll for the daughter of
the visiting Russian czar.
Lioret had been awarded a bronze medal at the Parist Exhibition
of 1878, and must have been familiar with the Edison exhibit there, which had caused a
stir in technical circles all over Europe. As an improvement over Edison's wax record,
Lioret chose to work with durable celluloid.
The Bebe Phonograph was introduced to the market in 1896 at a
cost of 58 francs by Jumeau, a firm of extraordinary prestige. She stood about 25"
tall, with open mouth and composition body. At least 12 titles were offered.
Lioret's interchangeable cylinders, running at 100 rpm, were
fashioned of white celluloid. There was a clockwork motor, metal stylus, and no feed
screw. As a prophylactic measure, Lioret advised the child operator to lubricate the
cylinder frequently with olive oil.
It isn't often that a baby gives birth, but the Bebe Phonograph
begat the French phonograph industry. Lioret's mechanism, dubbed "Le
Merveilleux," was later employed in his vertical box phonograph and his talking
clock.
Dolly Reckord
 This doll most familiar to collectors was
made from 1921-23 by the Averill Manufacturing Company as part of its Madame Hendren line.
It was also given away in promotions under various names such as the Gloria K or the
Watertown Doll. A doll with a slightly different face but the same mechanism was sold as
the Mae Starr.
The motor was patented by Richard Arthur in 1917, to replace an
earlier doll that whispered "mama."
With a composition head on a cloth body, Dolly Rekord played
interchangeable blue or black records on a saphire stylus.
The cylinders have the look of those manufactured by the Albany
Indestructible Company, one of the few sources of cylinder records as late as 1921. This
might solve the mystery of why the good selling Dolly Reckord was discontinued in 1923:
one year earlier, fire had gutted the Albany Indestructible plant.
Sources: Koenigsberg, Allen. Patent History of the
Phonograph.
King, Constance and Eileen. Collector's Encyclopedia of dolls.
Copyright 1998 Lynn Bilton.
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